


The Beach Episode

by yardsards



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Domestic, F/F, Fluff, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Lilith Clawthorne Redemption, Post-Episode: s01e19 Young Blood Old Souls, Slice of Life, i didnt mean for angst to happen but it sure did, no beta we die like that SENTIENT octopus demon that eda straightup ATE, or at least the beginning of a redeption
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:08:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28365192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yardsards/pseuds/yardsards
Summary: Eda decides to take Luz, King, Amity, Willow, and Gus for a day at the beach to keep them busy and get their minds off of everything that's happened. Summer fun and emotional conversations are had in equal quantities. Nobody knows how to handle the fact that Lilith lives at the owl house now, least of all herself.Starring: Eda as surprisingly emotionally competent; Lilith as unsurprisingly emotionally incompetent; Luz as repressing stuff but otherwise happy; Amity as absolutely failing to repress anything; Willow as the responsible one purely by default, Gus as an Absolute Babey (tm); King as Hungry; Hooty as Hooty; and everyone as a bunch of absolute hooligans and menaces.
Relationships: Amity Blight & Luz Noceda & Willow Park & Gus Porter, Amity Blight & Willow Park, Amity Blight/Luz Noceda, Eda Clawthorne & Lilith Clawthorne, Eda Clawthorne & Luz Noceda
Comments: 23
Kudos: 182





	1. Planning and Preparations

**Author's Note:**

> The idea of a beach episode was verrry loosely inspired by these fanarts:  
> https://paraesol.tumblr.com/post/637047454935728128/beach-episode-when-stupid-bonus-doodle-i-couldnt  
> https://mistbix.tumblr.com/post/628730816152928256/luz-influenced-everyone-now-theyre-the-croc

"Hey kiddo, could ya come over here and see what's wrong with my glyphs?" sighed Eda, defeated. She'd been trying for what felt like ages to perfect the light spell, but for some reason she couldn't produce a light larger than her fist, no matter how large the glyph she drew was. 

"Sure, lemme get a good look at them," replied Luz, scooting closer to Eda on the couch. She nestled herself under Eda's arm, certainly much closer than was necessary to see her mentor-turned-student's work. Eda chose not to comment on this fact, well-aware that the kid had needed extra affection after nearly dying then losing contact with her mother.

Luz scrutinized the glyphs, comparing them against her own, but couldn't find any faults; they were near-identical. Experimentally, she tapped one. It bloomed into a massive orb of light, nearly blinding both of the living room's inhabitants in the seconds before Luz could dispel it. "Good news!" she shouted, whilst still rubbing her eyes in discomfort. "Your glyphs are perfect!"

"Then what's my problem?"

"Hmmm. Can you try activating one of them while I watch?"

Eda obliged, focussing intensely and tapping the largest glyph in the pile. It sputtered, before forming into a light barely larger than a golf ball. She winced and clutched her chest in mild pain. "I have no clue how you can do this all day, kid. This glyph stuff is exhausting."

"Huh? It's not tiring for me at all."

"You don't need to show off."

"No, I'm not exaggerating, I mean it literally doesn't tire me out at all. Sometimes it's even kinda energizing. I have a guess about what's happening, but can you tell me how it feels when you try to cast a larger spell like this, just so I can be sure?"

"Oh, you know, inadequate, helpless, that kind of thing. I don't see what that has to do with-"

Luz surprised the older woman by pulling her into a forceful hug. "Oh, Eda, don't worry, I'm sure you'll get it eventually. In the meantime, I still think you're super cool with or without magic!" Eda felt another pang in her chest, this time coming from her heart rather than her bile sack.  _ Feelings. _ Eugh. Her little girl was too sweet for the world.

"Not quite what I was asking though," continued Luz. "I meant physically, how does magic feel? Like, for me, it's this energy that flows into my body from all around and builds up til it flows through my hand and gets released into the glyph."

Eda thought for a moment. "It's like there's fuel in the glyph itself, and I need to give it a little spark from inside myself to ignite it. Giving it that spark feels exhausting, like I'm squeezing the last little bit of energy out of my bile sack, the same way it used to feel when I would cast one last spell before the owl beast took over"

"Yep! That's it! You're still trying to use your own magic, when you need to be redirecting the magic of the Isles! Think like a transistor, not a battery!"

"You kinda lost me on that last part cuz I have no clue what either of those things are, but I get the gist. Use magic from outside me, not from inside me." Yet again, she tapped a light glyph. It formed more smoothly than last time, creating an orb the size of a cantaloupe. Eda was still tired by this action but less so than with any of her previous attempts. "Well, it's progress but I'm still beat. I'm gonna call it a night. Started drawing external power but I definitely poured out a bit of my own there, too. How'd you get so good at this so fast?"

"I think it's because it's the only way I've ever known. You've been doing magic the normal way for… some amount of years? I actually have no clue how old you are. Either way, it's gonna take some time to break that habit."

"Keep guessing baby, a lady never reveals her true age," responded Eda with an exaggerated wink.

"She's forty-four," interrupted Lilith, who had just walked into the room holding up a large pot of stew and using her leg to push aside King, who was attempting to climb her skirt to get to the food. "Anyway, I have dinner right here, despite  _ somebody's  _ best efforts." She directed a glare towards the small demon, who showed no remorse.

"I was the head chef! I deserved samples!" he griped.

"Head chef? You did nothing but interrupt me, continually suggest i needed 'more fire', and try to stick your head in the pot and eat bits of undercooked meat!"

"As I said, I gave you perfect instructions which you chose to ignore. Also, I did send Hooty on that wild goose chase for you."

Hooty could still be heard outside, fruitlessly trying to chase down the wild goose that King had pointed out and told him to catch. It was the only creature capable of matching Hooty's natural chaos. Someone might need to help the house demon untie some of the knots that has formed in his horrifying ropelike body over the course of the chase. That someone would probably end up being Lilith.

She groaned. "Fine, I admit distracting that infernal bird tube was somewhat helpful. You still need to wait your turn like the rest of us."

After everyone had filled their bowls, Luz and Eda returned to their spots on the couch. Luz tucked herself up against Eda's side despite no longer having an excuse to be so close. King clambered up the couch and flung himself halfway into Luz's lap, somehow managing to not spill any of his meal in the process. With everyone so clustered together, there was more than enough room for Lilith to sit beside them. Despite this, she pulled a kitchen chair up to the coffee table and sat alone, as usual.

Reflexively, Luz prevented Eda and King from digging into their meals. Her eyes were trained on Lilith, waiting for her to take the first bite- perhaps due to a subconscious fear that the former emperor's coven leader would try to poison everyone.

After that, dinner went smoothly. Lively conversation flowed freely between Eda, Luz, and King. Often, propriety was eschewed and they spoke with mouths full of food. Sometimes Lilith would awkwardly attempt to add to the conversation, but she could never keep the same rhythm as the house's other inhabitants.

"Hey," began Luz, through a mouthful of stew, "can Willow, Gus, and Amity come over this Saturday?"

Eda winced, looking up at the living room ceiling. She had  _ just _ managed to scrub the abomination goop off the ceiling from last week's incident. Or, rather, she had just finished forcing Lilith to clean it. Same thing, in her opinion. "Can't you go cause a ruckus at one of their houses instead?"

"Nope! Gus's dad has work, Willow's dads are gonna be fumigating her house for spider-rats, and we can't go to Amity's house because her parents technically still don't know she's been hanging out with us."

Amity had only been able to visit the owl house by getting Skara to cover for her. Initially, she had expected to have to cajole the bard into doing this favour by pointing out all the times she covered for her. (Skara's parents, while not quite as strict as Amity's, had been apprehensive about Skara's relationship with her boyfriend, Batrick. They didn't outright forbid her from seeing him but would often passive-aggressively complain about her cavorting with a lower-class witch, especially one with such demonic features, every time she mentioned him. She found it easier to just lie about her whereabouts.) However, Skara surprised her. The minute Amity voiced her request, Skara squealed in excitement, saying she was happy to aid Amity in her "forbidden love story". Amity tried sputtering that she was NOT in love with Luz and that they were just friends. To this, Skara responded with an unimpressed look and a "yeah, sure, whatever you say. Now quit wasting time talking to me and go visit that human you  _ totally _ don't turn into a blushing mess around."

Eda sighed, looking down at her apprentice, who was now giving her her best puppy-dog eyes. "Alright, hon, they can come over. Just please try not to get into trouble like you did the last couple times… Or, actually,  _ do _ get into plenty of trouble, but not the kind of trouble I'd have to deal with." She knew she was going to regret agreeing to this, but she simply couldn't bring herself to say no to the girl: especially not after she'd sacrificed her way home to save her life.

"Don't I get a say in this?" complained Lilith.

"Nope!" replied Eda, King, and Luz in unison.

"Come on, I'm sure there's somewhere outside the house where they could go and make their messes."

"That," began Eda, "might not actually be that bad of an idea. Guess you  _ do _ have a brain rattling around in that thick skull of yours, Lily." She mentally rifled through a list of possible places to go before the answer popped out to her. "Luz, how would you like to visit The Left Hand?"

"I have no idea what that is but I'm intrigued!"

Lilith took the opportunity to explain for her sister. "The Left Hand is a place Edalyn and I visited often as children. It's a beautiful beach with some of the calmest waters in the Boiling Isles. It's usually empty because it's difficult to reach by cart, but we have our staves. It'll be calm, quiet, and we won't have to worry about facing the law if the emperor suddenly decides to lift our public pardon."

Luz had barely heard the second half of Lilith's explanation, too overwhelmed with excitement at the prospect of going to the beach with her friends. She flapped her hands and let out a little squeal. 'Yes! Real life beach episode!"

"I'll take that as a yes, then?" asked Eda.

"Yes! Thank you both!" Luz set down her meal and pulled out her scroll to message her friends the good news. (The scroll had been a gift from Amity. It was one of her older ones, which she kept at the bottom of a drawer after she replaced it with a better model. It had some small rips along its corners but functioned just fine. Luckily, unlike human cell phones, you didn't need to pay for cell service.) She finished her meal in a hurry, waiting for their responses. Luckily, all her friends were allowed to go (except Amity, of course, but her parents bought her alibi, so that was close enough).

Later, Eda turned to Luz. "So, you ready for a potions lesson? We need to make some sun potions; us Clawthornes burn easy."

Sun potions were relatively simple, a good opportunity to walk Luz through the basics of potion-making. Luckily, potions required little to no innate magical ability, allowing Eda to take back her role as mentor for the night. Still, she needed Lilith to help out by using her limited magical ability to control the flame while she and Luz worked; lighting a flame manually wouldn't provide nearly enough heat regulation.

"Hey, Lily, do you remember when I first learned to make this potion?"

"Of course, I think you were around twelve at the time. It took you five whole attempts to get the stirring technique right."

Luz was silent, splitting her attention between grinding up the proper ingredients and listening to the sisters' conversation.

"I think it might've been six, actually. It was a homework assignment. After I messed up the first time I went to you for tutoring. Then I  _ still _ messed up the next two."

Lilith laughed softly. "The third attempt barely counted, Edalyn, you were half asleep by then."

"Yeah, I'd been up half the night before reading comics. I was trying so hard to get all my homework done that day, though, cuz our mom looked ready to snap if I skipped more work."

"Yeah, and as much as I hated encouraging you to skip more work, I had to pick you up and force you to go to bed early before you got that assignment done. I was afraid you'd fall asleep at the cauldron and set the ends of your hair on fire."

Eda turned towards Luz conspiratively and said in a stage whisper "and then, she helped me  _ cheat _ . After I went to sleep, she made the potion for me and slipped it into my backpack. Still made me learn how to do it correctly the next day, though."

Lilith looked to her feet. "I was so much wiser back then."

"Huh?"

"I respected authority back then, but I knew it was never more important than taking care of my sister. I don't know where along the lines I forgot that. Edalyn, I'm so, so sorry I ever forgot. I'm sorry I've been such a horrible sister."

Eda gave her a strange look- a mixture of sympathy and rage. "Listen, Lily. I want to forgive you, I really do. You took on half of the curse and apologized to me for being a bad sister. That doesn't fix everything, but I think with enough time, I could forgive you for cursing me and for spending decades hunting me down. But there's something else you've done, something far worse. And you haven't even so much as said sorry about that yet."

"Could you at least tell me what it is?"

Eda glanced down at Luz then back at her sister. "The fact that you haven't even  _ realized _ what you've done shows me you don't really care. Anyone with the tiniest shred of heart or brain could realize immediately that what you did was beyond evil."

Lilith visibly shrunk back in shame.

Luz continued her work despite the tangible tension in the air. Part of her wanted to change the subject and brush away the cloud of stress that had filled the kitchen. The rest of her pointedly decided to remain silent, leaving Lilith to stew in Eda's scorn. It was only fair, she figured, to let the witch that had nearly murdered her deal with the emotional repercussions of her actions.

Nobody quite knew how to handle the situation from there, so they finished the sun potion in a tense, awkward silence before bottling up both the potion and their emotions and heading their separate ways for the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If it sounds like my writing skills are terribly out of practice, that's because they are. This is my first time writing fic since like 2013 when i posted one singular Adventure Time fic on ffn at age 12 and deleted it a month later out of shyness. I don't write a lot (except for mandatory essays) because my ADHD makes expressing my ideas in a coherent linear manner feel like torture. But it made me impulsively want to pick up a new hobby so it kinda cancelled itself out.
> 
> Thanks to my friend (who isn’t even in this fandom and doesn’t have an ao3) for reading this chapter (after I published it) and pointing out a few things I needed to fix.


	2. Saturday Morning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for some mild angst and light mentions of not-so-stellar parenting techniques. I didn't mean to write any sadness into my lighthearted beach fic, it just kinda happened.
> 
> P.S. I added a few paragraphs to the end of chapter 1 on January 2nd so you might wanna look back at that if you're a returning reader

Luz spent the next couple of days leading up to the weekend quietly buzzing with anticipation. She spent plenty of time digging through the piles of clutter in the owl house digging for beach supplies. Though she hung out with her friends on the weekends and saw them almost every day in class (she had been allowed to continue attending Hexside since Eda was technically pardoned), she was still excited. She’d get to spend time at a real Boiling Isles seashore without having to worry about harvesting trash slug remnants, and get to share the experience with all the people she loved most. Well,  _ most _ of the people she loved, since her mamá was in another dimension and had no clue of her whereabouts. She stubbornly pushed those thoughts down.

The first to show up Saturday morning was Amity, carrying a duffel bag. She was almost immediately bowled over by the enthusiastic human. Part of her wanted to enjoy the hug for longer, but she was shy receiving such affection in front of the other members of the household. She broke it off and excused herself. “Hey, I couldn’t come here in my beach clothes because I didn’t want my parents to be suspicious. Do you guys have a bathroom I could change in?” She sprinted up to go change as soon as Eda pointed her in the right direction.

While she waited, Luz reviewed the contents of her backpack for what had to have been the tenth time. Just like the past nine times, it had contained snacks, drinks, towels, a blanket, goggles, a beach ball, a floaty, a bucket, a trowel, and her sketchbook. Amity came back downstairs a few moments later. She was wearing a violet tankini with all of her hair pulled up in a ponytail, revealing her undercut.  _ Oh, wow. She looks-  _ Luz stopped that train of thought in its tracks, adding it to that day’s ever-growing pile of repressed feelings. She didn’t want to mess up one of her best friendships with a crush.

Almost immediately after this, Hooty’s shrill voice heralded Willow and Gus’s arrival. They were both aggressively greeted and hugged by Luz, the same way Amity had been. Unlike her, they were already in their beach clothes, and each had a small bag of items to take with them.

“Welp, are we all ready to go?” asked Eda, holding her staff in one hand and a bag in the other.

“We should be,” answered Luz, “but where’s King?”

Eda held out her bag for Luz to take. She used her newly freed hand to push aside her and Lilith’s towels, revealing a sleeping King. “Right in here!” Luz took a moment to coo at the dozing demon. “Anyway,” laughed Eda, “thanks for agreeing to carry both of our bags the rest of the way.”

“Huh?” Luz looked down and realized she was now carrying Eda’s bag in addition to her own backpack. “Wait a second! I never agreed to this!” She tried to return the bag to Eda.

“Nope, Sorry kid! You took it when I handed it to you, no take-backs!”

Luz smirked. “Oh yeah? What if I just set the bag on the ground, leaving you and your sister without your towels?”

“And leave King alone here with Hooty? You wouldn’t dream of it.”

Luz looked defeated before realization dawned on her face. “Wait, Lilith’s stuff is in here too, why don’t we just make her carry it?” 

Lilith begrudgingly took the bag that was handed to her. “Can’t you at least force your demon to get out of the bag, Edalyn?”

“And make things easier on you? Not a chance. Besides, look at his little face.” Eda led everyone outside, closing the door behind them. “Looks like all seven of us are ready, so it’s time to get our move on.”

“Seven? You mean you’re not bringing me, hoot?” complained Hooty. Everyone looked disgruntled at that idea, especially Amity.

“Hey, Hooty?” observed Willow, “aren’t you bound to the house? We’d need another moonlight conjuring to get you out there.”

“You don’t know how looong my body is. Neither do I, actually. I could try stretching there!”

“Hooty,” interrupted Eda, “literally nobody wants to see that. Besides, we  _ just  _ finished untangling you after that wild goose chase King sent you on. Go play with some bugs or whatever it is you do all day.”

“Fine! Hoot! I can see when I’m not wanted!”

With that, Eda and Lilith brandished their staves, ready to fly. Luz and Gus got on Eda’s staff while Willow and Amity got on Lilith’s. They were both apprehensive about trusting the dark-haired witch, but deemed it less of a risk than Eda’s stunt-filled flying style. Luz and Gus, on the other hand, eagerly anticipated all the speed, loops, and flips that tended to accompany a ride on Owlbert.

The trip went by with little talking, as it was hard to hear anything over the sounds of the wind and the sea. They took a shortcut over the ocean to get to The Left Hand more quickly, giving a breathtaking view of the open water, filled with sea serpents, giant squids, and leviathans. After a while, a mass of land shaped like a massive hand appeared on the horizon. Soon enough, they reached it, landing in a shady spot next to a palm tree, far enough from the sea that they wouldn't have to worry about any waves reaching their belongings.

Luz had seen plenty of water, both on Earth and on The Isles, but the water here was the most enticing that she had ever seen. She promptly flung her backpack on the ground, rushing to jump in. Gus seemed to have the same idea.

“Wait just one minute!” shouted Eda. “You’re not going anywhere until you drink your sun potion.” She cringed a little bit at how much of a  _ mom  _ she sounded like just then.

“You don’t have to worry about that,” replied Luz cheerily, already taking another step towards the water. “I don’t burn easily.”

“Yeah, and I’m even darker than she is,” Gus pointed out.

“Nope, get back over here,” Eda scolded. “It’s better safe than sorry; I can’t do healing spells anymore and I don’t want anyone complaining about pain all night,” she looked to Luz, “or anyone’s dads getting mad at me,” she turned to Gus. “So drink up.”  _ Titan, she had somehow managed to sound even more motherly with each word. _

Amity and Willow had already taken their own potions from their bags and took hearty swigs, both visibly grimacing at the taste. Luz didn't want to experience that flavour firsthand, but knew that there was no point in continuing to argue with Eda. She took a sip from the large bottle Eda handed her and had to hold back a gag before passing it onto Gus.

After that ordeal was out of the way, Gus had begun sprinting towards the sea, followed immediately by Luz, who had grabbed Willow and Amity's hands, dragging them behind her. Willow laughed and let go after a few seconds, saying her shorter legs couldn't keep up, leaving Luz to hold Amity's hand alone. When Luz looked back at Amity, she noticed the witchling's face was an impressive shade of red.

She stopped abruptly, concerned for her friend. The abrupt change in momentum caused Amity to stumble, but Luz caught her before she could fall. This caused Amity to turn even redder.

"Hey, Amity?" asked Luz, mild worry lacing her voice, "you look really red. Are you getting sunburned? I thought you took your potion and we've not been out here very long at all but I don't know how witches' skin works."

Amity sputtered and backed away from Luz "haha, uh, no I uh, I'm just overheated. Yep! Super hot out here! You run on ahead and I'll sit down and cool off!"

Luckily for Amity (and unluckily for anyone who had ever been forced to witness the two girls' awkwardness; Willow was wholeheartedly convinced they would give her grey hairs before her 15th birthday) Luz had remained oblivious as ever. "I can wait for you, Willow and Gus already beat us there. But," she continued, "I think we should walk there instead of sitting here. The water would cool you off way faster, silly." She poked at Amity's side for emphasis, causing the witchling to giggle.

"Wait, Amity, are you  _ ticklish _ ?"

"Nope! Just laughing at uh, how goofy you're being? Yeah! Anyway you're right, I should get in the water, bye!" Amity sprinted away at an impressive speed.

"You can't outrun me!"

"Really? Because it sure looks like I am!"

Amity's luck ran out when she reached the water, however. She could swim, but not very fast. For once, she regretted skipping all those swimming lessons with Willow. Soon enough, the human caught up to her, poking at her sides again. Amity retaliated with a forceful splash of water to the other girl's face.

"Oh, is that how you wanna play it?" Luz returned the gesture with an even bigger splash. She had accidentally hit Gus, drawing his attention to them.

"SPLASH FIGHT!" he yelled, summoning a large illusory hand to splash them. Some stray droplets from that splash hit Willow, who had been minding her own business up to that point.

"You got my glasses wet! Augustus Porter, you are gonna PAY for this!" She drew a spell circle, causing a nearby cluster of seaweed to grow until it poked up well above the water. She used it to pick Gus up by his ankle and dunk him in the water. From there, the situation evolved into a massive 4-way water fight with no loyalties.

Back on shore Lilith had already set up her towel and begun reading a book. Eda pulled out her own towel and laid it out next to her sister’s. This roused King, who no longer had any towels to cover himself up with.

“When did we get here?” he grumbled sleepily.

“Eh, not too long ago,” answered Eda. “The kid packed you a towel and a floaty if you wanna go join them.

“I’ll pass. It takes forever for my fur to dry. Besides, I have important plans for today!”

“And what would those be?”

“If you must know,” he said, digging the shovel and bucket from Luz’s bag, “I will be building myself a sand empire! And then I’ll fill it with treasure! I will rule my sand citizens like a god! They will tremble before me as I threaten to crush their homes under my mighty paws! Muahaha!”

“Alright, you have fun with that,” replied Eda, as the small demon scampered off.

She smiled as she turned to her sister. “Ah, it’s the age-old scheme. Those five rascals wear themselves out all day, come home too tired to cause any trouble, then go to bed early. And we just get to sit here and relax the whole time. Mom and Dad might not have been great parents but honestly this was pretty clever of them to do to us.”

“Wait,  _ what _ did you just say about our parents?”

“Did you think they took us here that often because they  _ liked it _ ?” Eda laughed.

“I mean yes, but that wasn’t what I meant. What do you mean they weren’t good parents?”

“After all these years, you still haven’t realized? They pit us against each other, flipped out if we didn’t give them absolute obedience, and took every chance to ignore us unless we were being punished or if we achieved something really big.”

“Yeah, but it’s not like they hit us or anything!”

“That’s below bare minimum right there.”

“But! But they were our  _ parents _ ! Our blood! They had to have loved us!” Lilith looked increasingly distressed.

“Blood doesn’t mean jack squat!”

Now Lilith looked deeply upset. “Edalyn, did our sisterhood mean NOTHING to you?”

“Lily, it meant  _ everything  _ to me. But not because of something as silly as blood. It was important to me because of  _ who  _ you were and everything we went through together. You were my best friend, you were the one who helped me when I got hurt. And if you only loved me because of some stupid blood and not for  _ me  _ then I honestly don’t know what to say to you.” Now Eda looked almost as upset as her sister.

Lilith put a placating hand on Eda’s shoulder. “No, you’re right. We’d grown so far apart the past couple decades that our blood ties felt like all I had left.”

In a moment of tenderness towards her older sister that she hadn’t experienced in ages, Eda pulled Lilith into a hug, gently patting her on the back. After some time, Eda felt Lilith calm down and decided to continue her previous point. "I'd think after mentoring minty-fresh over there, you'd be able to take a look at her home life and realize that not all parents automatically love their children."

"Wait, are you talking about  _ Amity _ ? What's wrong with her family?" Lilith backed away from Eda in shock.

"Did you seriously not notice any of the red flags?"

"Unlike you and your human, I had a perfectly professional relationship with my protege. I never asked those kinds of things."

"It's not just in the bits I've overheard her telling Luz, it's in her mannerisms as well! It's glaringly obvious Odalia's still the same old bully who liked to steal your money, but nowadays she's got kids to take it out on."

"But Amity's such a good kid! I'm sure they should-"

"That's the thing." Eda sighed, looking at her sister with pity. "When parents don't love their kids or mistreat them, it's never the kids' fault." It was exceedingly clear that she wasn't just talking about the Blights. "No amount of being a good kid can fix their parents, and it really shouldn't have to."

"But- but maybe if we- I- had just tried harder- if I'd been better- mom and dad wouldn't- maybe they'd love me" Lilith was an emotional, stuttering mess. She was gasping like a fish out of water by the end of her statement. She felt like her world was collapsing as Eda's words toppled the beliefs she'd worked oh so hard to build.

Eda pulled her older sister into another hug, running her fingers comfortingly through her hair. "It's okay, let it out." The offer was tempting. Lilith wanted so badly to start sobbing like the scared little child she still was deep inside. But now was not a good time. It was supposed to be a carefree day, and she didn't want to risk a bunch of children seeing her sobbing. On top of that, she knew Eda hadn't even fully forgiven her yet, and she didn't want to force her little sister to comfort her like this.

Eda sounded melancholy as she continued. "Even if I still had my magic, necromancy wasn't my strongest suit. I can't go ask our parents whether or not they loved us. But I don't think it would change the fact that they were bad parents either way. If there's anything I've learned in the past two decades, it's that someone can really love you but still hurt you anyway."

Lilith knew that that last statement was referring to her. The guilt compounded with her already fragile state, bringing her almost to her breaking point. She knew if Eda said anything more to her, or even if she allowed herself to be held for much longer, she'd fall over the edge. She steeled herself with a deep breath and removed herself from the hug. "Eda, thank you for this conversation, but I don't think I can handle talking about this anymore. I'm going back to my reading."

A few moments of uncomfortable silence passed between them. Eda removed Owlbert from her staff and was absently petting his feathers. Lilith was trying to read but failing miserably, her eyes rereading the same paragraph over and over while her brain processed nothing.

Eda decided to break the silence and change the subject. "So, whatcha' readin'?"

"Oh, you know, just studying some ancient runes?" Lilith tried to hide the book's cover against her legs before Eda could see, but she wasn't fast enough. The younger witch was able to get a full view of the cover, which featured a woman in a corset and long skirt locked in a passionate embrace with a woman in golden armour.

"Oh yeah? And what kind of ancient knowledge are you finding in the pages of ' _ An Enchanting Night With the Enchantress Knight' _ ? Care to share with the class?"

Lilith's face turned a shade of red to rival that of her ex-protege. 

In the water, the kids finished yet another round of "marco polo", a human game that Luz had taught them after they grew bored of splash fights and racing. Nobody understood the meaning behind the phrases yelled, including Luz (she said Marco Polo was the name of "some explorer dude" but didn't know why the game involved yelling his name). Despite the odd phrases, the rules were pretty straightforward and everyone had fun. Gus in particular was excited to play a real human beach game.

"Do you guys wanna learn another human beach game?"

"Do you even have to ask? Of course!"

"This one is called sharks and minnows," Luz began. "It was always my cousins' favourite. When my mamá could afford to take time off work, we'd visit my extended family in the Dominican Republic and we'd play this all the time..." Luz caught herself reminiscing about a time she may never be able to go back to and pushed those thoughts aside before they could make her sad. 

"Anyway! So to start out, one person is the shark and everyone else are minnows. The minnows swim out a certain distance and the shark stands between them and the shore. Their goal is to get to the shore before the shark catches them. If the shark catches them all in the first round, the shark wins. Otherwise, the captured minnows become sharks and the surviving minnows go back out to the starting point and that gets repeated until the last surviving minnow wins."

Gus looked absolutely enraptured.

"Hey," Willow noted, "that's kinda similar to a game we have here called sea serpent. We have a serpent instead of a shark and the minnows are just called people. Except the serpent gets goggles and nobody else is allowed to put their head under water. That way, the serpent can sneak up on their prey and kill them without warning." She wiggled her fingers in a jokingly spooky manner. "Some versions say the serpent can't open their eyes above water but that's too difficult in a big body of water like this. Also, we only do one round."

"Huh, even childrens' games on the Boiling Isles are weirdly threatening! Neat! I brought some goggles if we wanna play that next, but one of us would have to go get them."

"Maybe after lunch. I'm starting to get a bit worn out and hungry from all this swimming, so let's go back after a few rounds of sharks and minnows." Amity and Gus both nodded, agreeing with Willow.

Meanwhile, on the shore, King had built a rather large (though somewhat misshapen) sand kingdom, consisting of many separate sand “houses”, a larger “castle”, a moat, and a big pit in the middle of it all. He was attempting to fill the pit with various treasures (seashells and various shiny objects he managed to dig up). However, he got distracted from his quest when he saw a small crab.

“Yes! Excellent! You shall be my first subject.” He tried to pick the crab up and the crab, predictably, pinched his paw before scurrying away.

“Nyeh! I shall have vengeance! Vengeance I say! I will conquer you and you will be forced to worship you as your god! And I will be a vengeful, angry god!”

Luz and co. got out of the water and she jogged over to him, patting his skull. “Are you having fun playing with your little sandcastle?”

“No! I’m preparing for war!”

“Well do you wanna take a break with us?”

“No! Vengeance rests for nothing!”

“Not even for a lunch break?”

“Okay, vengeance rests for  _ some  _ things. Let’s go!”

The five of them ran over to Eda and Lilith who had both calmed down from their earlier conversation and were now napping and reading, respectively. Luz jostled Eda. “Wake up, it’s lunch time.”

“Alright, kid, set up the blanket. I’ll get out the sandwiches. Hopefully they aren’t too flat since  _ someone _ ” she looked pointedly at King “decided to fall asleep in my bag”

“Ah, whatever,” he replied, “who needs sandwiches when we have six  _ sandy witches  _ right here? Ay?” Luz and Gus laughed, both giving him a human-style high five. The other four witches just groaned in agony at the awful pun.

“Well if it doesn’t matter then why don’t you just skip lunch,” Eda teased.

“No! I’m sorry! I was just kidding!”

Willow dug around in her bag before pulling out a small handful of various seeds. “I brought food too!”

Eda raised a brow. “Kid, I know I have the whole owl motif going on but I don’t eat birdseed.”

Willow laughed and stepped back a few meters. “Watch this!” Her eyes glowed green and the seeds in her hand rapidly grew into an expanse of greenery, filled with ripe fruits. “Ta-da!”

“Hot dang kid, why haven’t I just been doing that all these years instead of paying for groceries?”

“Well, Miss Eda, most witches are only good at growing plants that are big and strong but don’t know how to make sure the fruits are edible. I had to put in a lot of practice for this!”

“Oh, pretty impressive, especially for a Hexside twerp.”

“Hey!  _ I’m  _ a Hexside twerp!” Luz protested, laughing.

“Yep,” laughed Eda, ruffling her apprentice’s hair, “but I like you and your little friends anyways.”

Once the food and drinks were passed out, lunch went somewhat calmly. Lilith didn’t feel welcome in the circle with the rest of Eda’s mishmash family, but she sat close to them and even contributed to their conversation sometimes. It was progress, at least.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of the Shenanigans here (like Eda pawning her bag off onto Luz) were based off of stuff my older sister or cousins did to me as a kid.  
> I imagine the Clawthorne parents are an unfortunate mix between Eleanore's and Tahani's parents from "The Good Place" and that headcanon kinda seeped through. Probably projected a couple of my own Issues(tm) there too, tbh.  
> The goggles rule from "sea serpent" came from a weird pool game we played growing up called "anaconda" (before the song of the same name was written). Except anaconda's rules were more like jailbreak than sharks and minnows. Can't really have a jail in a massive expanse of ocean, though, so I changed it.  
> Also idk what pool games they in the Dominican Republic but children's games are hard to look up so i went with sharks and minnows.  
> Edit: Heck, it has been like 4-5 years since my last official Spanish class and I got mamá and mami mixed up. Fixed that now.


	3. A Well-Needed Rest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This and the next chapter were SUPPOSED to be one bigger chapter, but I decided to split em into two, since it was taking WAY LONGER than expected to write all this and I wanted to give some sort of update since it's been about a week since the last one.  
> Like the previous chapter, warning for some very mild angst. Also warning for canon-typical jokes about violence, along with one joke about vomit.

Soon after eating, King excused himself, saying he had an enemy to conquer, before scampering off and cackling maniacally. Luz waved goodbye to him and told him to have fun, but he was too focused on his goal to notice.

Amity dug the small vial of sun potion out of her bag and took another swig, grimacing at the awful flavour and sludge-like consistency. She washed it down with water before reminding everyone to take their own doses, as the first ones had probably worn off. They all begrudgingly followed suit. Lilith and Eda both returned to their beach towels and the children stood up, considering what they wanted to do next.

Luz paused, remembering something. “Hey, do you guys have the 30 minutes rule on the Boiling Isles?”

“I don’t think so,” said Willow. “What is it?”

“Well, there’s this myth in the human word that if you go swimming without waiting at least 30 minutes, you’ll get cramps so bad that you’ll drown and die.”

“Wait,  _ what _ ?” asked Gus, incredulously. “Is there something dangerous about human water or are your bodies just weird and easy to destroy?” Amity and Willow looked a little bit concerned too.

“No, don’t worry,” said Luz. “As I said, it’s just a myth. My mom is a nurse- that’s like a healer- and she said it’s fake. The worst that would happen is an upset stomach or very minor cramps, the same as if you did any other kind of exercise right after eating. She said it’s still a good idea to rest after eating anyway to avoid those problems.”

“Well,” said Willow, flopping down on the blanket and lying on her back, “I think that’s a great idea. I was already considering suggesting we rest.” Luz followed suit, resting her head on the witchling’s stomach. Willow wasn’t even startled by this action, getting used to the human’s physically affectionate nature over the past few months. Gus reclined next to them, and Amity sat primly on an empty corner of the blanket. Willow closed her eyes and basked in the sound of the waves mingling with the noise of her friends making small talk about their shared classes.

Her moment of peace didn’t very long, however, as she soon felt Luz getting fidgety against her. The human stood up. “I’m having trouble sitting still again. I’m gonna go see if King needs any help, if anyone wants to come with.”

Gus was the only one who considered the offer. “Nah, I’m probably gonna rest here a bit more. I might join you in a few minutes, though. Go have fun.”

Luz jogged over the diminutive demon, who was using a stick to draw so-called battle plans in the sand. Mostly, it was just various doodles of cartoonish crabs with Xs over their eyes, dead. She knelt down next to him.

“You need any help with… whatever this is?” the human asked.

King contemplated for a moment. “Well… it  _ would _ be nice to have a one-person army under my command. Then again, I would have to share the glory. Hmmm…” he looked conflicted before placing a solemn hand on her arm. “I’m sorry, boo-boo buddy, but some battles are things a demon just has to fight on his own.”

She put an encouraging hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay, I understand. I wish you great victory in your battle.” She gave a mock-salute before standing up and returning to her friends. She had an idea of what she wanted to do next.

"Hey! Do any of you wanna get buried in the sand?"

Willow and Amity looked concerned, whereas Gus looked delighted. "Is this some kind of human funeral reenactment and death worship?"

Luz laughed. "No, silly. It's just something we do for fun, I'm surprised it's not something you do too. We just dig a shallow pit and someone lays down in it and we cover them in sand, except for the head."

The explanation did not dull his enthusiasm. "I would LOVE to play your weird human burial game!"

Luz looked to the two girls. "Either of you wanna join?"

"I'm good," said Willow, "but you two enjoy your, uh, burial." Luz and Gus ran a bit closer to the sea, where the sand was less hot.

Willow rolled herself over to one end of the blanket, making plenty of room for Amity. She patted the newly-created empty space, wordlessly inviting her ex-best-friend to lie down next to her. Amity complied, moving slowly to make sure that was what Willow wanted. 

The two laid in silence for a few moments, staring up at the sky, before Willow let out a soft chuckle, remembering something. "Hey, Ami?"

"Yeah?"

"Remember that time, probably the second time we skipped swim lessons, when I snuck my dads'  _ entire  _ cookie jar into my swim bag?"

Amity giggled a bit. "Yeah, eating that whole thing in one sitting was  _ not _ a good idea."

"The swim instructor was  _ so  _ mad! He made us swim all those laps as punishments."

"Worst laps of my life! And then he looked even  _ angrier _ when after your fourth one you climbed onto shore without asking."

"Titan, yeah! He looked like he was about to start yelling at me and then I just started  _ puking _ all over the place." Willow was full-blown laughing at this point.

"And then a flock of seaskulls came down and started EATING it!" Amity was laughing now too.

Willow had to deliberately catch her breath to continue "And when Skara saw it,  _ she _ puked right in the water."

"At least 3 kids started crying and we all got to go home early. It was great." The two girls lost themselves in fits of laughter until they were breathless.

They spent some time in companionable silence after that before Amity spoke up. "Hey, Willow?" Amity rolled onto her side to face her friend, using her elbow to prop herself up slightly. 

Willow mirrored her action, making gentle eye contact. "Hm?"

“I missed those days. I… I missed you. I was lonely and miserable for years after I had to stop being friends with you." Amity paused for a moment, searching for the right words to say. "I'm not saying that because I want you to pity me or anything. I know my struggles are nothing compared to yours, especially since I was partly at fault for how badly you got bullied. I just… I want you to know you were really important to me, even if I didn't act like it. You're an important and amazing person in general and anybody would be lucky to be your friend."

Willow was a bit shocked to hear all this. She had been getting better self-esteem lately but still had trouble really accepting that other people liked and respected her. "That's… that means a lot to me. Thanks, Ami." There was a beat of silence before she reached out her free hand and placed it on Amity's shoulder. "But don't belittle your own problems just because I was hurting too, or because you made mistakes."

Amity looked at Willow in stunned silence.

Willow continued. "It still hurts sometimes, and I wish you would've told me the truth and protected me from your so-called friends and not been so condescending when I failed in class. But the more I've been talking to you lately, the more I understand it."

Willow retracted her arm and sat up so she could look at her friend more directly. "It's like you just said, you were a lonely, sad, scared little kid. You were afraid your parents would punish you if you let anyone know how they treated you. You were afraid of losing your so-called friends and being even more alone. You were afraid that if you didn't act like an untouchable perfect student all the time, then you'd have  _ nothing _ left to cling to. I get it. It doesn't retroactively undo all the pain I've felt in the  _ past _ but it makes me less upset  _ today. _ "

By now, Amity had sat up and curled into a ball, one arm hugging her knees to her chest and the other fidgeting with the blanket beneath her. Her eyes looked downwards, refusing to meet Willow's face.

The plant witch sighed. "I can only imagine how bad it all must have felt for you. I always had two loving dads at home, and years later I got Gus as a friend. You had a complicated home life and no  _ real _ friends. We both suffered in our own ways and both of our feelings matter. It's not like only one of us can have the right to feel hurt; I can certainly share."

Amity pointed her watery eyes up to Willow. "I… thanks."

Willow looked down at her. "Do you need a hug?"

"...Yes." It came out closer to a whimper than anything.

Willow's embrace felt different than it did 7 years ago, of course. Both girls had grown a lot, physically and mentally, over the years. However, the comforting, homelike feeling it brought to Amity remained the same. One hug couldn't solve everything, but it eroded a small fraction of the calcified loneliness that had made its home in her chest, and that was enough for now.

Willow pulled away after giving her friend a gentle pat on the shoulder. "It's good to have you back."

"It's good to be back," smiled Amity.

"I guess things have started looking up for both of us, huh? People at school think I'm cool and you have me, Luz, and Gus to be your friends now."

"Yeah, ever since Luz came into our lives, things have changed a lot, for the better."

"You really like her, huh?"

"Of course I do, she's a great friend."

"Not what I meant," smirked Willow. "Come on, I haven't seen you blushing this much since that older girl who read to us at the library. What was her name, Valor? Valerie?"

" _ Valencia _ , and I don't know what you mean about her."

"I  _ mean _ that every week for  _ months  _ you'd make me distract the wild snapdragons and twolips so you could pick a few without getting bitten and give them to her before storytime."

"Okay  _ maybe _ I had a silly, childish crush on her back then."

"Your feelings towards Luz are  _ more _ than that, though, aren't they?"

Amity hid her face in her hands. "...Yes. Please don't tell her."

Eda looked up from where she had been practicing drawing glyphs in the sand. She directed a devilish grin at her sister. Lilith  _ totally _ owed her ten snails. Before Lilith could protest, Eda gave her the  _ shhh _ gesture. She didn't want to alert the girls, both of whom had clearly forgotten that the two older women were lounging on their towels just a few meters behind the blanket  _ the entire time, _ to their presence.

Willow smiled coyly at Amity. "Oh, your secret is safe with me. I may have to keep teasing you until you confess, though."

Amity was saved -or perhaps further endangered- by the object of her affections bounding up to the blanket where she sat, with Gus in tow. Both of them were covered neck-to-toe in sand. Apparently, after Luz had buried and unburied Gus, he decided to return the favour and bury her.

"You've gotta try this!" shouted the illusionist. "I've got sand in places I didn't even know  _ existed _ !" For emphasis, he tugged at his t-shirt, dumping a comically large quantity of sand at his feet.

Amity grimaced. "Thanks but… I think me and Willow are good out here." Willow nodded vigorously in agreement. 

"It's almost definitely been a half hour by now," said Luz. She pulled the goggles out of her bag and closed it neatly. "We can go in the water and play some of your Boiling Isles games. You wanna play sea serpent with us, Eda?" Amity startled at that last part; she had forgotten how closely the two sisters were sitting to her and Willow. She hoped they didn't overhear their whole conversation, especially the part about her crush.

Eda shrugged. "Nah, I was prolly just gonna stay here and keep workin' on my glyphs. Or take another nap. Maybe both."

"Come on, please?" pleaded Luz. She hadn't yet brought out the patented Noceda puppy eyes, but was prepared to bring out the big guns if Eda didn't agree. "I wanna spend time with you."

Luz had definitely not intended it, but those last words felt like a punch in the gut to Eda. She remembered all the times she's been in Luz's position, only to be brushed off by an annoyed parent. She wanted to break that cycle. She couldn't be expected to  _ always _ have the time and energy to keep up with the energetic young girl, but in situations like these? It certainly couldn't hurt to play a few games with the kid; Eda wasn't particularly busy at the moment and had spent all morning resting. "Alright, fine. But don't expect me to go easy on you pip squeaks."

Luz excitedly pumped her fist in the air. "Yes! Thank you, Eda!" She grabbed her mentor's hand (which, luckily, stayed attached to her wrist), helping the older witch to her feet. Then, without letting go, she sprinted out to the ocean, dragging Eda behind her. Her three friends tagged along after them.

  
  


King had long since given up hope on tracking down and enacting revenge upon the crab that had wronged him. He had given up on capturing any creatures to live in his sand kingdom, and instead decided to create his own sand subjects. They looked like tiny, misshapen snowmen. Unfortunately, there was a major drawback to such citizens.

“Tremble before your god!” yelled King.

The sand citizens, being made of sand, did nothing.

“I said tremble!”

They continued to just be nonliving, misshapen lumps of sand.

King stamped his feet angrily. “Tremble or I’ll destroy your homes!”

They did nothing, predictably.

“That’s it! You brought this upon yourselves!” King laughed maniacally as he crushed the sand houses beneath his paws. He basked in the destruction before looking down at the sand people expectantly.

They did not move, except for one. The shaking of the ground had caused its twig-arm to fall from the salute King had carefully placed it in, plopping unceremoniously to the ground. 

"Oh! You are going to regret that! I gave you a chance for mercy but you refused! Now you shall face the king of demons' wrath!" King angrily kicked over his sandmen, only briefly pausing when a twig jabbed at his paw. "Perish! Watch as I, your god, usher in the end of days! Weep, knowing you could have prevented this!"

Once he was done with his tirade, he looked down and sighed. None of his kingdom remained, except for the so-called treasure pit. “Oh well, who needs loyalty when you have material wealth.” He dug through the shells and shiny rocks in the pit before soon growing bored. He picked a few of his favourite rocks and shells and put them in his pail, before heading back to the blanket, intending to put them in Luz’s bag to bring home with him.

Inside the bag, on top of everything else, he saw a small bag of Hex Mix. He let out a small squeal of delight. Lilith looked up from the pages of the bodice-ripper she was reading, wordlessly scolding him for the noise.

“Oh, just can it!” he said, ripping open the bag.

Lilith looked alarmed, pointing above him. “King, there’s-”

King ignored her. “You don’t get to complain about me after I saved your life.” If he had only listened to her, he would realize she was pointing to a small flock of see-gulls gathering above him, ready to swoop. (See-gulls were creatures much like earth seagulls, but with a few dozen too many eyes.) The horrible birds descended upon him, stealing his snack before he could even eat his first bite. Lilith held back a giggle as the small demon got swarmed. 

“Not a word.” said King, glaring at her, before attempting to chase after the birds. He screeched at them as he ran, threatening vengeance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Idk, thinking about how Amity didn’t seem to have any real friends for years just makes me sad and I never really see it touched upon. Like, I’d hope that maybe she grew to like the girls her parents forced her to hang out with (even though they were mean) but she seemed so detached and miserable at the sleepover so I’m assuming no.  
> And yes, Understanding Willow was 100% my favourite episode, if you couldn't guess from all this.  
> Sidenote, I’m not a huge King fan when watching the show but I’m finding that he is an absolute DELIGHT to write for.  
>   
> Not positive when the next update will be, but I reckon it'll be sometime next week. I've been pretty busy with college lately, but I've been using this story as kind of a warmup to get my brain into "writing mode" before doing essays. It's like wrapping a dog's medicine in lunchmeat before givin' it to em. Sometimes it works, but oftentimes I never shift into essay mode, lol.


	4. Fun and Games

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for more angst, somehow. TW for mentions of emotional abuse. Listen, ya boi’s gotta cope *somehow* and hurt/comfort is semi-healthy. Strap in, this chapter’s on the long side. It wasn’t supposed to be this long but the characters wanted to keep on talking for longer than I originally wanted them to. Oh well.

“Edaaa, stop cheating,” whined Luz. Eda had caught all four children effortlessly during both of her turns as serpent and managed to evade capture all five of her turns as prey, even during the round when Luz tried to hunt her down exclusively.

“How would I cheat? I don’t even have my magic anymore.”

“Come on, I know a master cheater like yourself could figure something out without any spells”

Eda secretly felt proud when she heard that; maybe she  _ wasn’t _ useless without her magic. Luz sure seemed to think she was capable, anyways. Nonetheless, she had an argument to win. “Listen, I told you I wouldn’t go easy on you. It’s not  _ my  _ fault you all have short little limbs. See, I may  _ look  _ old but decades on the run have kept me strong and quick.”

“Oh yeah?” challenged Luz. She tried to run full force at her mentor, forgetting how badly the water resistance would slow her down. Her slowed attempts at sprinting would certainly not make for a decent tackle. Time for a plan B. She clambered up Eda’s side, trying to knock her over. “These tiny limbs are gonna take you down!” Her efforts did little. Eda still stood tall. She grabbed the human by under her arms and threw her an impressive few meters into the water.

“Nice try, kid.”

Willow, Gus, and Amity watched wordlessly. They were thoroughly used to those two’s shenanigans by now.

Eda watched as Luz paddled back to her. Uh-oh, the kid had an excited sparkle in her eyes. “Yeet me again!” yelled Luz.

Eda inferred what the strange human slang meant. “Oh no, I am  _ not  _ gonna toss you around on command. Do I look like some kind of pygmy unicorn at a petting zoo?”

Luz climbed onto her shoulders. “Maybe!”

“You are gonna get it, twerp,” laughed Eda, before diving under the water, dragging Luz with her. When she resurfaced, Luz was barely clinging to her neck, spitting out saltwater and laughing. Having Luz on her back reminded Eda of something. “Hey, do you guys have tengu fights in the human realm?”

“I don’t think so, what are they?”

“There’s two sets of partners. One gets on the other’s shoulders. The two on top fight until someone gets knocked into the water. Last team standing wins.”

“We have those but we just call ‘em chicken fights.”

“That’s  _ weird _ . Boiling Isles chickens are known for being cowardly, and human wildlife is usually much more tame… and didn’t you say you guys regularly  _ ate  _ chickens? Doesn’t sound like a very fighty bird.”

“You’d be surprised…” Luz shuddered, remembering an unfortunate trip to the county fair, followed by an unfortunate trip to the emergency room. “Anyways, I’ve only gotten to participate in a couple of chicken fights over the years because Tía Elena would yell at my cousins for roughhousing when we did it, and I couldn’t do it back home because you need three friends…” Luz sounded dejected at that last part, reminded of her lonely years in the human realm.

Eda turned her head unnaturally far backward to look at her apprentice, who was still hanging onto her back. “Well, you’re in luck because you have  _ more  _ than three friends right here! I might have to sit this game out, or maybe see if I can drag Lily into this. If my advantage as the only adult was helpful last game, I’d destroy you in this one.” She shook Luz off her back and ruffled the girl’s soggy hair before heading back to shore.

Amity glanced around. As much as she’d like to, she knew she would certainly perish if she had to sit on Luz’s shoulders, or vice-versa. She  _ could  _ ask Willow to be her partner, but Willow would probably find some excuse as to why Amity should be with Luz instead, _ the absolute traitor. _ Her eyes landed on Gus.  _ Perfect.  _ The young illusionist was as oblivious to Amity’s massive crush as Luz herself was. Also, he was standing the closest to her, giving her a perfect excuse as to why she would pick him over the other two. She put a hand on his shoulder. “Me and Augustus versus you and Willow!”

Gus was briefly surprised by Amity’s choice, since he was less close to her than the other two were. He didn’t question it too much. He looked to Luz and Willow. “You’re going down!”

Luz wrapped a confident arm around Willow. “Oh, it is  _ on!” _

Amity found a second benefit to having Gus as her partner. Amity was her team’s carrier, while Luz rode on Willow’s shoulders. She wouldn’t even be standing face to face with her crush.  _ And _ Luz and Gus had a solid rivalry going, so it was unlikely they’d want to swap partners at any point. Perhaps she  _ wouldn’t _ combust from the sheer force of her own lesbianism today. Nice.

Lilith was jolted out of her reading by her sister's voice. “I challenge you to a tengu fight! Me and my apprentice against you and yours!”

Lilith gave Eda an unamused look. “I’ll pass. Besides, Amity isn’t even my apprentice anymore.”

“You’re just afraid we’d beat you!”

“No, I’ve just outgrown such childish games.”

“You know, Luz said humans call em ‘chicken fights’. But looks like  _ you’re  _ the real chicken here.”

“Am not!”

Eda flapped her arms like wings. “Cluck, cluck, cluck. My name’s Lilith and I’m too chicken for a chicken fight because I know I’ll lose,” she singsonged. 

“I would  _ not  _ lose!”

“Oh yeah? Get in the water and prove it.”

“Fine!” Lilith stood up. She removed her sarong and wrapped her book in the cloth before setting it down on her towel. She looked to the sea with a mischievous glint in her eye. If Edalyn was going to pull her down into such childish competitions, she might as well embrace it. She started sprinting before Eda had time to move. “Last one into the water is a smelly, rotten chicken egg!” 

Lilith just barely beat Eda to the water. “That’s only because you cheated!”

“Wow, Eda, you’re one to complain about cheating.”

“We’ll see who the  _ true _ winner is when me and Luz destroy you in a tengu fight.”

When they reached the children, Luz had just knocked Gus into the water. “The score’s four-three, with us back in the lead,” said Willow. 

Eda gave Luz a thumbs-up. “Nice job, kid.” She gave Willow a second thumbs-up. “Nice job, other kid.”

“It’s not much of a win,” said Luz. “They were in the lead for a while there and it’s really been neck-and-neck.”

“Well, seven rounds is a good stopping point- and I’m not just saying that because you’re winning. Whaddya say to a different arrangement; me and you against my sister and Amity?”

Gus drew a small spell circle, creating glowing letters that read “GO TEAM AMITY!!!”

Luz looked at Gus and clutched her chest in a jokingly affronted gesture. “Augustus Porter, how could you?”

“I’m sorry, Luz, but me and Amity now have a bond forged in the heat of war.”

Amity felt a twinge of joy at that. She knew he was mostly joking, but Amity was glad to hear that Gus genuinely thought of her as a friend by now. That was quickly overshadowed when she thought about Eda’s challenge. The idea of fighting Luz whilst on a team with Lilith made her uncomfortable. She decided to slip away from everyone before she risked becoming visibly upset.

Luz slung an arm around Willow’s shoulders. “Well, at least I have my dearest and most loyal friend  _ right here,  _ isn’t that right, Willow?”

Willow laughed, returning the gesture. “Yep!” Then, she paused, noticing the head of green hair swimming back to shore. “Hey Amity, where are you going?” She spoke loudly so that Amity could hear her.

“I think I’m gonna sit this one out,” came the reply. “I need a break.”

Willow caught on to Amity’s uncomfortable tone, but erroneously assumed her friend was just being awkward about her crush  _ again. _ Willow didn’t understand the point of romance, but at least watching Amity’s awkward stammering was pretty funny. “Hey, Luz, maybe you should go check on her and make sure she’s okay.”

Luz nodded. “You four stay here and have fun, I’m gonna go check on Amity.”

Amity was sitting curled up in a ball and facing away from the ocean when Luz got to her. She was startled by the sound of the human plunking herself down next to her and asking “Hey, Amity, are you okay?”

Amity gave a noncommittal shrug. 

“You seem more than just physically tired. Did we accidentally hurt you somehow? Or did you get overwhelmed? I know sometimes  _ I  _ get too overloaded by too many noises or sights or things going on at once and need to sit down away from everything for a while. If that’s the case with you, I can leave you alone now. I just wanna make sure you’re okay.”

Luz had given Amity a perfect excuse. She could agree, just lie and say that it was just sensory overload, and be left alone to brood in silence. All of her common sense said to do that, but something stopped her, drove her to be honest. “No, it’s more than that. Can we… get a little further away from everyone? I don’t want anyone to overhear.”

Luz agreed. “Yeah, might be good to go sit in the shade and have some water too, make sure you don’t get too hot.” She stood up and held out a hand, helping Amity to her feet. She expected the Blight to pull her hand away once she was standing, but Amity held Luz’s hand the entire walk back to the shady spot where the blanket was spread out.

Luz sat down on the blanket first. Amity sat next to her instead of face-to-face. She would need to calm down some before she was ready for direct eye contact. She stayed silent, unable to think of the right way to explain herself.

Luz dug a bottle of water out of her bag and passed it to Amity. “Take all the time you need,” she said. “Just sit back and have some water until you’re ready to talk about it.”

Amity did as Luz suggested, sitting in silence for a few moments, absentmindedly watching King chase some see-gulls further and further away.

"I'm sorry, it's a stupid thing for me to be this upset about."

Luz gingerly set a hand on Amity's shoulder, giving her friend a chance to pull away if she wasn't okay with being touched. "Amity, it's okay, I promise. Even if it’s something that would otherwise seem insignificant to me, it isn’t silly. It hurt your feelings, and your feelings matter, so this matters to me.”

“Okay.” Amity had trouble believing that, but she decided to trust Luz. She took a deep breath. “It’s just, the idea of me and Lilith fighting against you and Eda, even as a game, reminded me so much of the covention.”

“Oh, Amity, I’m so sorry about that.”

“It wasn’t your fault. I know I blamed you for that day when we first met, but really, you weren’t the one who forced me to cheat. If anything, that was Lilith’s fault. She’s the one who consciously chose to embarrass me in front of the whole coven- in front of my future.” She sighed. “Then again, I don’t know if I even want that anymore, if it’s filled with people like Lilith. But either way, it hurt me so badly at the time.”

Luz struggled to hold back the comment that all emperor’s coven members worked for a corrupt system and that Belos himself was far worse than Lilith. They could talk about that later.

Amity continued, “and it’s not just that. When I got home, my parents found out and they were  _ furious. _ It was one of the worst nights I’ve had in a long time.” Amity felt like she was about to cry at that memory but held it in. “I’ve been realizing  _ that  _ part wasn’t fully Lilith’s fault. I just… wasn’t ready to blame my parents. I assumed it was just a part of life: gryphons breathe spiders, horses eat fingers, and parents hurt children. If someone shoves you into a pixie nest and the pixies eat your skin, you blame the idiot who chose to push you instead of the pixies who are just following their instincts, you know? So that’s why I blamed you and then Lilith for what  _ they  _ did to me.”

“Oh, Amity…” Luz moved her arm to wrap it around Amity’s back. Two instincts warred within Amity’s mind. The first one told her that she’d already opened up too much and needed to pull away into safe isolation. The second told her to lean into the affection, to get everything off her chest. She went with the second one, no matter how much it terrified her. She leaned into Luz’s touch and continued speaking.

“I assumed all parents were like mine because it’s not like I had any other frame of reference. I saw Willow’s dads but I figured either they were a fluke, or that they were really good at hiding what went on behind closed doors- probably the second one. I mean, Boscha’s mom is overbearing and her dad is cold and terrifying. Skara’s parents spoil her but ignore her and don’t actually care about her and just use her as a pawn to one-up each other in their weird feud.” She paused a second. “Don’t tell them I let that slip.”

“My lips are sealed.” Luz used her free arm to make a zipping motion over her mouth.

“Recently, though, I realized parents like that aren’t universal. I’ve seen how your families are, Willow and her dads, Gus and his dad, you and Eda, the way you talk about your mother. They make mistakes and hurt you by accident sometimes, but they genuinely love you and care about you and would never hurt you on purpose. Even if you messed up or disappointed them. Even if you were as bad as me.”

“Amity, can you look at me?” Amity turned to face Luz. Luz moved her hands to sit on both of Amity’s shoulders. “Amity, there is  _ nothing  _ wrong with you. I’m sorry they ever made you think that there was.” Amity’s eyes were wet with tears that she failed to blink away and she was trembling. Luz resisted the urge to pull the witchling into a hug right then and there; she didn’t want to risk scaring her friend while she was in such a vulnerable state, though. Instead, she asked first. “Can I hug you?”

Amity practically flung herself into Luz’s embrace, legs halfway on her lap, arms tight around her back, and face buried against her neck. Under any other circumstances, Amity would’ve melted into a pile of blushing goo, but she was too far into her meltdown to think about that kind of thing. Luz held her tightly, rocking back and forth and providing gentle reassurances. “It’s okay. You’re okay. You can let it out. You’re safe. It’s okay, I promise. I don’t mind.” Amity let herself cry. Once her floodgates collapsed, she soon found herself wracked with uncontrollable sobs.

“There you go. You’re doing great. I’ve got you. Just try and breathe. Follow along with my breath if you need to,” Luz soothed. She ran one hand through Amity’s hair, undoing her (now extremely unkempt) ponytail in the process. Her other hand rubbed gentle circles on the girl’s back. She continued until Amity calmed down and pulled away.

What Amity had just done fully sunk in. She felt extremely self-conscious once the haze of her emotions started to clear. “Thank you for that, Luz. I’m sorry I dragged you into that when you were having such a good time before. I’m mostly calm now, you can go back to your friends.”

Luz offered a soft smile. “Amity, you’re my friend too. And sometimes being friends means being with you through the bad times. I’m happy just sitting here with you.” She rifled through her backpack. Huh, she could’ve sworn she had packed some Hex Mix. Oh well, she still had a small bag full of cookies in the bottom, warm from sitting in the sun. “Here, take one of these and drink some water, having a small snack and some water always helps me recover from a crying session.”

Amity silently hoped that Luz’s experience with crying was just from her habit of getting emotional over good books or cute cat videos. She knew that Luz had deeper, more painful emotions hidden underneath all that, though. The thought saddened Amity; the kind-hearted human deserved better than that.

“...Amity? You still with us?”

“Oh, yeah, sorry, I was just lost in thought for a second there.” She took the offered snack. “Thank you.” Amity slowly enjoyed her cookie while Luz ate quickly.

Luz brushed her hands off on the blanket and remembered she still had Amity’s ponytail holder around her wrist. “Can I fix your hair? Not that you don’t look super pretty with it down.” She mentally facepalmed.  _ ‘Wow, Noceda, way to sound like a useless bisexual.’ _ “Just, y’know, since I messed it up and it’s probably pretty warm on your neck like that.

“S-sure. There’s a comb in the front pocket of my bag.” While Luz grabbed the comb, Amity was screaming internally. Why did she agree to that? Luz knelt down behind Amity, running her fingers through the girl’s hair. Amity imagined her inevitable obituary:  _ ‘RIP Amity Blight, age 14. Cause of death: too gay to function.’  _ She was lucky, at least, that Luz couldn’t see her face from back there.

“You have thick hair too, huh?” commented Luz.

“Uh… yeah.”   
“Mine’s like that too. It’s also kinda curly, though, so brushing it just makes it poof up.” she made a poofing gesture before continuing detangling. “One day I got tired of my mamá trying to wrangle it into shape every morning and just- chopped it all off.” She removed her hand from Amity’s head for a brief second to mime a chopping gesture. “She was  _ horrified  _ when she saw me in front of the bathroom mirror, hair all hacked to bits. But she helped me even it out.” Luz’s voice sounded nostalgic. “I could manage it on my own since then, but some mornings she still liked to style it for me anyway.”

After Amity had gotten over her initial heart attack, Luz running her fingers through her hair felt pretty nice. She laughed a bit. “Yeah, my hair was always difficult to control, too. Sometimes the servants couldn’t manage it, and mother would get  _ really  _ annoyed and decide to ‘take matters into her own hands’ and yank a brush through it herself, but it wouldn’t really fix much. You’d think she would’ve gotten practice with Emira’s, but apparently mine was worse. I think that’s the only reason she let me keep it in a bob and then later get an undercut. Well, that and it’s easier to dye it green.”

Luz switched to brushing through Amity’s hair with the comb. “Weird question, but is green a natural hair colour for witches? In the human realm, strict parents like yours usually wouldn’t let their kids dye their hair ‘unnatural’ colours, but a lot of witches have bright hair, and most of them never have any roots showing through.”

“It’s a bit uncommon, but yes. Em and Ed’s hair is naturally green. Mother makes me dye mine to match them, she says she wants us to be  _ colour coordinated _ .”

Luz was horrified. “You mean she  _ makes  _ you dye it? I just thought you wanted to look like Azura, or secretly looked up to your siblings, or just liked the way it looked.”

“Well, that first one is why I went with such a light shade, but no. Almost all Blights have green hair, but I took after my father, who married into the family. She always hated it.”

Luz let out an affronted gasp. “Amity, that’s horrible! You shouldn’t be forced to change yourself like that! Besides, your mom’s stupid, your brown hair is beautiful and warm like fresh, homemade dulce de leche. Not that you don’t  _ also _ look good in green, especially with your whole mint chocolate chip deal, but you should get to  _ choose _ .” 

Luz got distracted for a moment, noticing from her choice in comparisons that she definitely had food on the brain. She wondered if the Boiling Isles had ice cream, especially dairy free stuff. They probably called it something weird like ‘knife scream’. She’d have to remember to ask Eda about that... She snapped herself back to the serious conversation she was having in the present.

“Thanks, Luz.” Amity mentally thanked the titan that Luz was still behind her and couldn’t see her blush; she didn’t know how much longer Luz was gonna buy the overheating excuse.  _ ‘She called me beautiful! Twice!’  _ Amity gave a shrug in response. “And yeah, I don’t like it, but as much as I’d love to take some big heroic stand against her, that wouldn’t work out very well in real life. The most I can do is secret acts of rebellion, like  _ forgetting”  _ she gave air-quotes “to touch up the roots.”

“I wish there was a way for me to help.”

“I don’t think there’s a way to make them stop, but what you’re already doing, listening to me and giving me someplace to go, helps a lot.”

Luz didn’t know what to say to that. Instead, she finally tied back Amity’s hair (she had been combing it for far longer than was necessary, but Amity didn’t seem to notice or mind), and sat down, close to her friend’s side. She linked an arm around Amity’s and rested her head on her friend’s shoulders, moving slowly so that Amity could pull away if she wanted to.

Amity didn’t move away. Despite feeling a bit flustered, the gesture was mostly pleasant. She looked forward, towards the sea. She saw the four witches in the water, discussing something. Then, Gus climbed onto Lilith’s shoulders and Willow got on Eda’s. Gus readied some illusions and Willow readied some plants. Amity pointed them out to Luz. “Looks like they’ve agreed to drop the standard ‘no magic’ rule. This’ll be interesting.”

Luz glanced over. “Who do you think will win?”

“I’ll say Gus out of loyalty, but between you and me, probably Willow.”

“Yeah, I’d say Willow too, plants are better for combat.”

Gus overwhelmed Willow with a barrage of illusions, then leaned forward to physically push Willow over. It almost worked, but Eda’s stance was strong enough to keep her from falling in. Willow faked her opponents out by sending a tendril of seaweed toward Gus’s head, then stopping it and using it to pull Lilith under the water by the torso. When Lilith resurfaced, she looked like an angry drowned rat. Gus gave Willow a high five and Eda looked to be doubled over in laughter.

Luz started laughing at that and Amity soon followed. They watched another round. This time, Gus was on Eda’s shoulders and Willow was on Lilith's. Willow won again by using her plants to pull Gus off of Eda’s shoulders, plunking him neatly into the water and leaving the owl lady untouched.

“Hey Luz,” said Amity. “I think I’m ready to go out there again.”

“Are you sure? Don’t make yourself uncomfortable just because you feel like you have to.”

“Yeah, I am. Just… let’s play a different game, one that won’t end up with me and Lilith against you and Eda.”

Luz let go of Amity and procured a deflated beach ball from her bag. “Here, we could play something with this, and we can make sure the teams don’t end up like that.” Luz started blowing up the ball while Amity sat there awkwardly. She considered offering to help, but thought better of it. As juvenile as it felt, Amity knew her heart could not take an indirect kiss like that.

When she finished, Luz sprung up, beckoning for Amity to follow. She linked her right arm with Amity’s and looped her left around the beach ball. She skipped toward the shore, excited to reconvene with Eda, Gus, and Willow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -The tengu I imagine the game being named after are more like the really really old depictions, where they’re warlike bird spirits, rather than the more current humanoid versions.  
> -Luz isn’t emotionally incompetent and I will die on this hill. She’s just isn’t used to people genuinely liking her (also I headcanon that she’s got rlly bad ADHD).  
> -I almost had Willow follow Amity instead of Luz, but I felt like Luz would be better at understanding the situation (also, there was already a ton of Willow-Amity interactions in the previous chapter and I like to keep some variety going). So, surprise, you get some Lumity interactions that aren’t *just* jokes about how much of a disaster lesbian Amity is. I generally stay away from writing Serious Romance about these two bc 1 I’m aromantic and prefer platonic stuff and 2 I’m A Whole Adult and writing anything more than puppy love between these two would feel awkward. But this amount here is pretty good.  
> -Also almost had Amity confront Lilith directly but I don’t think either of them are ready for that quite yet. I’ve actually got a separate fic idea in which Amity and Lilith work their issues out, but idk if I’ll ever write it, because I’m sorta running out of steam writing-wise.
> 
> -Next chapter should take less time than this one because I have it like 60% done by now because I work non-linearly.


	5. Going Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Zoo wee mama, this one took a long time. I’ve been super busy lately since the new semester started. And then I lost a solid week recovering from getting my wisdom teeth removed. Sorry that I kinda accidentally lied when I said that this update shouldn’t take too long. This was supposed to be the last chapter but I broke it in half. It’s a bit shorter than any other chapter (despite most of them being cut short and published prematurely as well) because of that. But I figured I might as well publish *something* because who knows when I’ll be done with the next few scenes.

“Sorry about that,” said Amity as they approached the group, “I just got a bit worn out earlier and needed to rest.”

Everyone knew that was a lie. Eda, Lilith, Willow, and Gus, while unable to make out any words or facial expressions from such a distance, did see the silhouette of Amity crying and Luz comforting her. They had agreed amongst themselves to give the two girls some privacy by looking away and continuing their game. They figured that Amity could open up about what was troubling her whenever she was ready. In the meantime, they would not push her or Luz about the issue.

“Do you guys wanna play ball, adults against kids?” asked Luz. Everyone agreed and they hashed out the rules.

On shore, King had completely tired himself out chasing the see-gulls. He didn’t land a single victory against them. Instead, he was just left tired and hungry, at least a kilometer away from where he started. He sighed in defeat, beginning the long trudge back to the beach blanket. He wouldn’t even have a bag of Hex Mix waiting for him. He hoped at least that there was still fruit left in the small patch of vegetation that Willow grew during lunch time but prepared himself for further disappointment.

On his way back, he picked up some particularly shiny shells, trying to tell himself it was all worth it because he got some new treasures. It did little to actually improve his mood. He looked out to the ocean, seeing everybody having fun in the water. He felt a twinge of regret. Maybe he should’ve swallowed his pride earlier and put on the floaty and joined them or accepted Luz’s offer to help him with his kingdom. 

After what felt like an eternity, he made it back to the blanket. He decided that after he rested, he would join the other six in whatever game they were playing. He opened Luz’s backpack to place his new shells inside and saw a half-empty bag of chocolate chip cookies on top. Maybe he could still have some good luck. He’d have to be smarter this time, though. He threw a towel over himself, forming a safe barrier from the prying eyes of overhead scavengers. It felt a bit like a tent, with his horn serving as the central tentpole. He delighted at the feeling of having his own makeshift hideout as he ate his first cookie.

Playing a ball game in the water was much more difficult than anticipated. There were no boundary lines, so keeping score was difficult, and a few times the ball was nearly swept away by waves. Everyone decided that it would be best to take the fun back to shore. Together, they drew one large rectangle with a dividing line in the middle to serve as the court.

Luz noticed King’s form hidden under a beach towel. She lifted one of the corners and saw him in the middle of eating one of her cookies. He looked like a deer in headlights as he quickly tried to eat the remaining evidence.

“I see you found my cookies,” said Luz with a smile.

“What cookies?” said King, trying and failing to not sound suspicious.

“It’s okay, I brought enough to share.”

“Well, okay, maybe I  _ did  _ eat a couple. Being the king of beaches is hungry work, okay?”

“Of course,” she said, patting his skull affectionately. “Anyways, do you wanna play ball with us?”

King tried to hide how much he perked up at the offer. “Oh, sure, I guess so.”

Luz turned to the others and shouted “Hey, I got King to join us!”

“Dibs!” yelled Eda.

“Come on, I’m the one who got him to join,” complained Luz.

“Yeah, but then it would be five against 2 and that’s pretty unbalanced, even if we  _ are _ older and taller.”

Luz thought for a brief moment. “Okay, yeah, that makes sense.” 

She explained the rules to King. “Okay, you three go on that side and we go on this side.” She pointed as she spoke. “We’ll volley the ball back and forth. You can only hit it, not catch or throw it. Our team gets a point if the ball hits the ground on your side or if one of you hits it out of bounds and vice versa. Does that all make sense?”

King nodded eagerly. “Prepare to be thwarted by the king of ballgames!”

The seven had fun with their friendly competition and light taunts. Luz took note of how difficult it was for King to get a chance to hit the ball because of his small size, so she made sure to occasionally send a few easy passes directly toward him. Perhaps it wasn’t the best strategy in terms of winning, but that didn’t matter to her as much as making sure her friend was included did.

Eventually, everyone tired of the game and they decided it was time to head back to the owl house. They packed up their belongings before getting ready to fly home. Lilith, with Amity and Willow riding behind her, lifted off first, smirking as she left Eda to carry their bag. Eda’s group took a bit longer to settle onto Owlbert; they had to make sure they were very secure, lest they fall off due to Eda’s erratic flying style. Luz nestled herself against Eda’s front, between her mentor’s arms, leaving Gus to cling with one arm around the older witch’s back and the other gripping the staff behind him. King grumbled about Eda’s hair being too soggy to hide in before settling in against Luz’s front, letting her hold onto him.

Sandwiched between Willow and Lilith, Amity found herself dozing off. Typically, she would not feel safe enough to fall asleep like this. However, she had slept even less than usual last night and spent hours that day having the type of rowdy childish fun she hadn’t experienced since before her parents had forced her to break off her friendship with Willow- not to mention the roller-ghoster of emotions she experienced. Thus, exhaustion won out. 

_ ‘First Luz rests her head on me, and now Amity is asleep on me,’  _ thought Willow.  _ ‘Might have to change my name from “Willow” to “Pillow” at this rate.’ _ She silently grimaced at her own truly terrible pun, but mentally saved it for later. Luz and Gus would love it.

Lilith considered rousing her ex-apprentice but decided against it. As long as the other three were too worn out to rope her into anything, the girl was unlikely to cause any issues when they got home.  _ Was Lilith really thinking of the owl house as home now? _ She decided not to think about that too much.

Soon enough, they arrived at the owl house. Eda and her group arrived a bit sooner due to her reckless flying tendencies. (Said tendencies also helped to keep the two children on her staff awake, if a bit dizzy). She helped the kids dismount and took King out of her bag before she got off. 

King grumbled. “Maybe I should just fly with the coven crony and the cupcake smasher next time if you three are gonna fly like that. This morning’s ride was much better!”

Gus looked down at him. “King, you were asleep all this morning.”

“Exactly!”

As she landed, Lilith was considering how to wake the witchling slumped bonelessly against her back. Willow did the work for her. “Hey Ami, wake up, we’re here.”

Luz bounded over to the two other girls. “Awww, did Amity get sleepy on the way back? I bet it was adorable.” Amity’s face turned red.

“Oh, it was,” Willow stage whispered, “you should’ve seen her when we were kids. We would sit by my dads’ fireplace and she’d be asleep in minutes, like a little kitten.” Willow smirked as her old friend’s blush deepened. She had  _ mostly _ forgiven the bullying, but figured she deserved a little bit of payback, as a treat.

“¡Que linda!” squealed Luz. “Please tell me you have pictures!”

Willow watched Amity squirm. “I probably do. My papa has so many scrapbooks, I’m sure that’s in there somewhere.”

Only then did Luz notice just how red Amity had gotten. “Amity, are you okay? You’re really red. Did you get overheated again?” She placed a concerned hand to her friend’s forehead.

“Yep! Just overheated! Sitting in the middle of a staff is really warm, you’re lucky you were allowed to sit up front, haha.”

“Well then,” declared Luz, “let’s get you inside immediately. You can lie down and have some water to cool off.”

"Hold it right there! What do you kids think you're doing?" scolded Eda, standing in front of the door. 

"We're… going inside?" answered Willow, tentatively.

"Not like that you aren't. You're all covered in sand and ocean gunk! I'm not some kind of neat freak but that stuff gets everywhere and takes ages to clean up." She ducked into the shed for a moment, coming out with a hose. "You all have changes of clothes, right?"

The kids all nodded, not yet sure what she meant. 

"Alright, everyone drop your bags and stand over there." She pointed to a spot a few meters away. The kids and King obliged, while Lilith begged Hooty to let her in. "Nope! You too, Lily!"

Lilith had already caught on to what her sister was planning to do. "You really don't have to do this to me. I can just take a shower." The older witch tried to sound dignified as she protested, but it came across more like a whine.

"Yeah, but it's much funnier this way. Hooty, don't let anyone in til I've cleaned them all off."

"What's in it for me, hoot hoot?"

"I'll show you the spider nest I found in my closet last night."

"Too late! I already found and ate them all today when I was snooping through your stuff!"

"When you were  _ WHAT? _ "

"I do it all the time when you leave me here alone. Maybe you should think about that before you abandon me. And you could at least keep better snacks hidden for your old pal Hooty to find! That trail mix in your sock drawer was DISGUSTING! HOOT!"

"Trail mix?" Eda looked confused for a minute, before realization crossed her face. "Hooty, that was  _ potpourri. _ " She groaned before continuing. "Anyway, keep them out or else I'll spray you too."

King squealed angrily when he realized what Eda was about to do. "You can't just spray me with a hose! I am the king of demons! My majestic fur requires a special touch!"

"That 'majestic fur' is full of sand! It's either this or I vacuum you, Mr. Wiggles."

"Nyeh! Fine! But I will have my vengeance!"

Without warning, Eda turned on the hose, blasting King, then Lilith. The kids took that as an opportunity to try to scamper away, but Eda managed to get them all.

Her luck ran out, however, when Luz slammed into her, snatching the hose out of her hands with a triumphant grin. "Well now we're all clean but you're still sandy. We can't have that!" The girl directed a blast of water to her mentor's face, cackling. Then, she turned towards her friends, mad with power. "And THIS is for using magic in our splash fight when I can't take my glyphs in water!"

Eda, Lilith, and King looked at each other in mutual understanding before grabbing what belongings they could carry and slipping inside, away from the pandemonium.

Eda dried herself off and poured herself a large mug of apple blood (non-alcoholic this time, since she'd have to fly the kids home later.  _ Wow, when did she start caring about staff safety? _ ) before gazing out the window. Willow now had the hose and a small army of plants. The yard was certainly gonna be a mess of mud, magical plants, and abomination sludge by the time they were done out there, but at least they were keeping the mess  _ outside. _ She just hoped Hooty wouldn't roll in it. (He definitely would.)

After a while, the kids wore themselves out and went inside. They toweled themselves off and changed into normal clothes, one by one. They ended up crowding together on the couch; Luz was sandwiched tightly between Willow and Gus, wrapping her arms around each of their shoulders while Amity sat on the far right side of the couch, next to Willow. At first, she kept her distance, but as they lost themselves in conversation, she found herself leaning contentedly into her old friend’s side.

At one point, Willow was telling a story about how one of Jerbo’s plant-abominations got in a fight with a giant carnivorous plant in the school’s greenhouse. “You know,” she said, “if I would’ve been able to mix magic like that, maybe I wouldn’t have hated abominations class quite so much.” 

“Why did your dads put you in the abomination track if you hated it so much?” asked Luz.

“Well, it was a little bit because it’s got the best job opportunities,” began Willow. “Plus, Papa is in the abomination coven and probably figured I could follow in his footsteps. If anything, though, I would’ve rather been like Dad. He studied construction in school but at the last minute he decided to join the baking coven. I guess that’s not really the most solid education plan, though.”

Willow looked like she wanted to say something after that but was struggling with how to say it. Her friends took note of this and waited for her. Finally, she continued. “Plus, I think they hoped that I could literally  _ make  _ some friends for myself.” Willow was embarrassed at that admission; she looked like she was trying to hide her head in the collar of her shirt like a turtle retreating into its shell.

Amity laughed halfheartedly. “Yeah, despite the coven’s slogan, even the best abominations make  _ awful _ companions… Believe me, I’ve tried.” That last sentence came out as a barely-audible mumble.

“It doesn’t matter either way,” said Gus, “because now you have us! We’re your perfectly good non-abomination friends.” Nobody knew whether that comment was directed towards Willow, Amity, or both.

“Well,” joked Luz, “I’m not  _ fully  _ a non-abomination friend. There  _ was  _ that time with my first unofficial day at Hexside.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had the scenes right after they returned home written for a while. This chapter is probably tied with ch.3 for my fav. No clue when ch. 6 is gonna come out but fingers crossed it isn’t *too* long.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and critiques of any kind (even if they’re just one or two words or some smiley faces) are greatly appreciated!
> 
> Also, my tumblr is @yardsards if you wanna reach me there (warning for profanity and standard tumblr nonsense on my blog, though).


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